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This site is the inspiration of a former reporter/photographer for one of New England's largest daily newspapers and for various magazines. The intent is to direct readers to interesting political articles, and we urge you to visit the source sites. Any comments may be noted on site or directed to KarisChaf at gmail.

Friday, February 21, 2014

How do liberals who decry income inequality deal with the fact that income inequality is greatest in jurisdictions with liberal public policies? A story in Thursday's New York Times suggests an answer.

The story is based on a Brookings Institution report that finds, in the words of the Times' Annie Lowrey, that “inequality is sharply higher in economically vibrant cities like New York and San Francisco than in less dynamic ones like Columbus, Ohio, and Wichita, Kan.”
And what does “vibrant” mean? Lowrey quotes the Brookings study's
author, Alan Berube, as saying less “vibrant” cities “are not homes to
the sectors driving economic growth, like technology and finance. These
are places that are home to sectors like transportation, logistics,
warehousing.”

But every metro area is, to some
considerable extent, home to the transportation, logistics and
warehousing sectors. Columbus and Wichita are also significant homes to
other sectors, including higher education and general aviation
manufacturing. I get the impression that for Berube and Lowrey “vibrant”
means “places I’d like to live.” But not everyone shares that view.
Metro Columbus and Wichita have not suffered the extensive net outward
domestic migration as have metro New York and metro San Francisco.

Lowrey and Berube don’t show much interest
in whether the liberal public policies of New York and San Francisco
that subsidize non-work and penalize small employers have contributed to
income inequality there. The coastal very rich don’t usually mind such
policies; they make it easier to solve the servant problem.

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